I 



E. B. STAHLMAN — HIS CHARGES DENIED AND 
MOTIVE EXPOSED. 



" Since this man lias Itnindpd hiinsplf and has boon branded by a report of 
eommitlee of this body and by Senators famUiar uith the transactiou, it is 
imecessary for me to characterize him or the charffes he has made against 
ic other than to pronounce them as utterly and absolutely false." 



SPEECH 



HON. LUKE LEA 



SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 



JULY 15, 1914 



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WASHINGTON 
1014 
53531—13099 






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fiy^ 



o; iF o; 

NOV S 5914 



SPEECH 

I-IOI^. LUKE LEA, 

OF TENNESSEE. 



Jlr. LEA of Tennessee. ftTr. President, I rise to a question of 
personal privilege. Almost coincident witli the passage on my 
motion by this Ijody of Senate resolution No. 153, directing (lie 
Interstate Commerce Commission to investigate certain prac- 
tices and methods of (he Louisville & Nashville Railroad I was 
selected as a target for abuse and viliflcation by one E. B. 
Stahlman, formerly a vice president, a legislative agent, and a 
lobbyist of that company, and now publisher of the Nashville 
Banner, and very generally believed in Tennessee still to have 
connections with that railroad. 

Coincident with the publication on Thursday last of the pre- 
liminary report by Iho Interstate Commerce Commission in 
response to the Senate resolution directing that this investiga- 
tion be made the said E. B. Stahlman published a more aggra- 
vated attack on me than theretofore on the first page of the 
same issue of his paper, in which on an inside page was pub- 
lished the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission, ap- 
parently as if to break the force of the astounding story of de- 
bauchery through free passes by this railroad which Stahlman 
served so long as lobbyist. 

I replied, answering his charges, establishing their falsity by 
the testimony of disinterested parties, men of the highest char- 
acter, and laid bare his record as investigated and expose*! 
by a Senate committee. 

On July 14, 1914, there appeared the following dispatch from 
Nashville in the Washington Herald : 

[Special to the Washington Herald.] 

N.tsiiviLLE, Tenn., Julj/ 13, JW^.— Branding Senator Luke 

Lea as " scion of an honored, wealthy family, gotten down to 

the low level of a holdup bandit and plain grafter," E. B. Stabl- 

53551—13690 3 



man, owner of the Nashville Banner, to-day, In print, charged 
Lea wi'h grafting $10,000 from the erstwhile judiciary com- 
mittee and also $10,000 from Republicans of the State to aid 
the fusion cause. 

LeAj owner of a rival paper, and Stahlman are waging a hit- 
ter war in print, Lea having previously denounced Stahlman. 
Until a few months ago they were fast friends. 

While the charges relate to a time several years ago, some 
months before I was either a candidate for or elected to the 
Senate, the only office I have ever held or have ever been a 
candidate for, still if I am the creature he describes I would be 
unfit for membership in this body or association with decent 
men. 

Fortunately for me the character of E. B. Stahlman, who 
makes these charges, is not only well known iu Tennessee but 
in Washington, where he was once the subject of a senatorial 
investigation. The said Stahlman, In addition to being the lob- 
byist of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, of which he was 
Tlce president for many years, would lobby for any concern 
which desirea legislation by any public body and would pay the 
hire of a lobbyist. 

He was at one time eniiiloyed to lobby through Congress a 
claim of the Methodist I'ublishing House of approximately 
$300,000. He entered into a solemn, written contract with the 
agents of the publishing house by which he was to receive 35 
per cent of any amount collected on this claim, a copy of which 
contract, as published in the report of the Senate investigating 
coumiittee, I will, in the absence of objection, incorporate in 
my remarks without reading: 

ARTICLES OP AGHEEMF.NT BETWEEN' B.inBEE & SMITH, BOOK , 
AGENTS OF THE METHODIST EI'ISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH, AND 
B. B. STAHLMAN. 

Witness : 

First. That we. Barbee & Smith, book agents of the Jteth- 
odist Episcopal Church South, do hereby give power of at- 
torney to the said E. B. Stahlman to prosecute wur claim be- 
fore the Congress of the United States, for the use and abuse 
of the publishing house of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South by the Armies of the United States during the war be- 
tween the States from A. D. 1861 to 1865. 

Second. We, Barbee & Smith, book agents of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church South, do hereby .igrce that the said E. B. 
Stahlman shall receive as compensation for his services 3.5 per 
cent of whatever sum shall be collected from the United States 
for the liquidation of the aforesaid claim. 
68351—13699 



Third. It is hereby agrepd between Barbee & Smith, book 
agents of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, party of the 
first part, and E. B. Stahlman, party of the second part, that 
should the Congress of the United States, malto no appropria- 
tion for the liquidation of the aforesaid claim, then, in that 
case, no compensation shall he paid to the said E. B. Stahl- 
man for his services, from any source whatever, and he shall 
have uo recourse upon us or our successors in office forever. 

Fourth. We, Barbee & Smith, bools agents of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church South, do hereby agree and covenant that 
this power of attorney herein and hereby conveyed to the afore- 
said E. B. Stahlman shall continue in full force and effect un- 
til the final adjournment of the Fifty-fifth Congress of the 
United States. 

(Signed) B.vebee & Smith, 

Book Agents for lite If. B. Church South. 

E. B. ST.1.IILMAN. 

After the bill allowing this claim passed the House and was 
pending in tlie Senate, a question of fact was raised by Sen- 
ators whether Stahlman had a contract for a percentage of 
this claim as a fee if the claim passed and it became certain 
that the bill would not pass so as to permit this payment to 
Stahlman. When the issue was raised Senator Bate, of Tennes- 
see, who was in charge of the bill, received a specific denial 
from the said E. B. Stahlman that he had any contract or was 
to receive any fee or any money other than his expenses for his 
work on the claim, which was, as he stated, prompted by his 
interest in the church. 

The bill passed the Senate, the claim was paid by the Govern- 
ment, and Stahlman immediately collected out of the amount 
paid on the claim a sum hx excess of $100,000. The matter then 
became the subject of a senatorial investigation and the Senate 
Committee on Claims reported in part as follows, the full report 
being found in volume S, Senate Report No. 141G. 

Mr. stahlman admits he intended that they [Senators] 
shmilii receive this impicssinn from what he said, and a fair 
interpretation of his v.-rirds meant that there was no contract 
and that he was not connected in the case on account of money 
consideration. They were deceived and misled, and the decep- 
tion was willful and deliberate on Mr. Stahlman's part. 

In CoKGEEssroNAL Kecokd, volume 31, part 6, page 5677, is 
found the following extract from a speech of Senator Hale, of 
Maine : 

Does the Senator believe that this lobbyist, who lias looted 
this .g:reat appropriation that Congress gave to this religious 
society, has ever in any way contributed to the passage of the 
bill? Did it not go through entirely outside of him? 
53531— 13G00 



On page 5S04 of the same volume of the Record is fouud tbe 
following extract from a speech of Senator Tillman, of South 
Carolina : 

I hope (the cburcb) will make this thief and liar, Stahl- 
maD, disgorge. 

In the same volume of the Recokd, page 5S0G, is found the 
following extract from a siieech of Senator Morgan, of Ala- 
bama : 

If this man Stahlman, who seems to he a German and who 
has floated into the case somewhere or other and somehow or 
other, has violated, as he seems to have violated, his duty and 
the obligations of a man to tell the truth, under the circum- 
stances, if he has done so, that man will be tabooed. Ue is 
worse ruined now than it he had succeeded in getting a hun- 
dred million dollars out of this thing. There is no chance to 
put him in any worse attitude than he is to-day. 

On page 5S01 of the same volume of the RECono is found the 
following extract from a speech of Senator Bacon, of Georgia : 
In my conversation with the Senator from Tennessee and 
others before going to see Mr. Stahlman no mention was made 
of any percentage, and in my conversation with Mr. Stahlman . 
there was no mention of any percentage. It was simply a 
question whether or not there was a large fee to be paid to him 
or others out of the recovery on account of this claim of the 
Methodist Book Concern, and his assurance to mo was that 
there was no such contract, hut there would necessarily be 
some expenses to be paid. 

Inasmuch as this man i.s attempting to destroy my character 
and to blacken my reputation, it is proper to place before my 
colleagues the estimate he placed upon his own veracity, or 
rather, lack of veracity. 

In Senate Document Report No. 141G is found the following 
statement, under oath, by E. B. Stahlman : 

Well, then, make me the martyr. I made the denial. Peter 
denied his Lord three times. lie told a story. I do not claim 
to be better than Peter. If Peter was forgiven— and Peter is 
the rock upon which the church was founded — Stahlman can be 
forgiven for the crime he has committed, if crime it be. 

The.se proofs of Stahlman's lack of character and want of 
veracity were embalmed In the archives of this Government 
before I was a Member of this body and at a time when I was 
absent from Nashville, being at college, and I did not know of 
them until long afterwards. Recently, since his attacks on me, 
53551— 13G09 



I iuvcstiiiated these reports, of which I had gained information, 
and published his recoi'd as laid bare by the report of the Com- 
mittee on Claims, the speec-hes of Senators, and his own con- 
fession undoi- oath. 

Since this man has branded himself and has been branded by 
a re])ort of a committee of this body and by Senators familiar 
with the transaction, it is unnecessary for me to characterize 
him or the charges ho has made against me other than to pro- 
nounce them as utterly and absolutely false. 

In conclusion, I have naught in my private life or as a public 
official which I desire to conceal from my colleagues or from 
the public, and I would welcome any action tliat tlie Senate 
miglit deem proper to take upon these charges made by this 
characterless creature, whose record in all the nakedness of its 
dishonor has been exposed to this body. 

The meaning of this attack must be as obvious to all as it i3 
to me. It is intended to be a painful lesson to me and a black- 
hand warning to others not to dare to train the pitiless light of 
publicity upon the nefarious conduct of lawbreaking corpora- 
tions and their :-orrupt lobbyists. 
53531— 13C99 

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